Cambria silicosis lawsuit
Hundreds of workers who got silicosis after cutting, grinding, or polishing Cambria quartz countertops have each filed a Cambria lawsuit. Here is where those cases stand and who can still bring one. Silicosis is a disease of the lungs that comes from breathing in fine silica particles. Silica is the tough mineral quartz is built from. An investigation by the Minnesota Star Tribune reviewed over 600 of these lawsuits nationwide, and most of them name Cambria.
- Company sued
- Denver jury, April 2026 (Cambria 32% at fault)
- $17.45 million
- Los Angeles jury, August 2024 (Cambria 10%)
- $52.4 million
- Torrance jury, June 2025
- Defense win
- California cases being coordinated
- About 80
Where the Cambria silicosis cases now stand
There is no single nationwide class action. Every worker brings a case on their own, and a large share of those cases sit in California state court. A class action bundles everyone's claims into one case, and that has not happened here.
The outcomes have been mixed. Juries in California and Colorado decided Cambria's products were not defective. Still, a Colorado jury found Cambria liable for how it portrayed its product, and a jury in Los Angeles held Cambria partly responsible for the illness of a worker who needed both of his lungs replaced.
A California judge has moved to combine about 80 artificial-stone silicosis cases so the court can handle them in a more organized fashion.
Who may bring a claim against Cambria?
You could qualify if a doctor diagnosed you with silicosis after you worked around silica dust in jobs like stone fabrication, construction, mining, and other industrial work. Fabricators are the shop employees who cut slabs and shape them for a kitchen or bathroom.
You do not have to have handled only Cambria products. If your shop cut slabs from more than one brand, Cambria and the other manufacturers can be named in the same suit. That is how the Los Angeles case worked.
Even short exposure can matter. Workers have developed silicosis after heavy dust exposure during fabrication that lasted only months, and the aggressive, quick-onset type seen in California fabricators can appear within 5 to 10 years.
Deadlines apply, so you can ask for a free claim review, in English or Spanish, by a law firm that advertises on Silicosis Claims. In California, you generally must file a silicosis injury claim within two years of the diagnosis or discovery of the disease, and you can find your state's workers' compensation agency on this list.
Silica in quartz versus natural stone
The safety data sheet from Cambria itself says its slabs are at least 87% crystalline silica, and some engineered quartz goes as high as 93% by weight.
| Kind of stone | Amount of silica |
|---|---|
| Engineered quartz (Cambria included) | 87% to 93% |
| Granite | Roughly 30% |
| Marble | Under 10% |
These lawsuits concern workers exposed to silica dust while processing quartz slabs. Cutting slabs can send silica dust to dangerous levels even when the dust is invisible. A California doctor who works in public health says that even with the right gear, workers can face unsafe levels.
Verdicts and settlements, case by case
| Case | Place and date | Outcome | Blamed on Cambria |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reyes Gonzalez | L.A., Aug. 7, 2024 | $52,437,366 jury award, later partly reversed; an appeal is pending | 10% at fault |
| California fabricator | Settled in early 2025 as jury selection began | More than $26 million from Caesarstone, Cambria and other companies | Not reported |
| Solano-Claustro | Torrance, Calif., June 2025 | Verdict for the defense; the products were found free of defects | No fault assigned |
| Jordan | Denver, Colo., Apr. 30, 2026 | $17,450,000 award; Cambria plans an appeal | 32% at fault, roughly $5 million |
Gustavo Reyes Gonzalez wasn't diagnosed until two years after his symptoms started, and doctors told him he had about a year to live. In 2023, at just 36, he had a double lung transplant. His was the first artificial-stone silicosis lawsuit in the country to reach a verdict.
Tyler Jordan put in roughly a decade at his family's shop in Colorado before doctors found he had silicosis along with kidney disease tied to silica. After a trial lasting 3 weeks, the jury put 63% of the fault on his employer, 32% on Cambria, and 2% on Jordan himself. The jury found Cambria liable for misrepresentation, which means giving customers a misleading picture of the product's safety.
Cambria's position on silicosis claims
Cambria argues that employers who fail to protect workers or follow OSHA guidelines are the ones at fault. OSHA is the federal agency in charge of workplace safety rules, and it caps silica at 50 micrograms of silica per cubic meter of air, averaged over an 8-hour shift.
A former head of OSHA sees it differently, saying the rules now in place don't do enough to keep fabrication workers safe. At Cambria's own plant in Belle Plaine, robots cut the slabs with water jets, though some experts say wet cutting and protective gear may not prevent unsafe silica exposure.
Cambria also backs a bill in Congress that would protect stone manufacturers from some product-liability suits.
Common questions
Are workers suing Cambria?
Yes. Separately, California has identified 635 cases of artificial-stone silicosis, a count of illnesses, not lawsuits. By August 13, 2026, 35 workers had died, and over 140 had gotten or qualified for lung transplants.
Are any other quartz brands facing lawsuits too?
Yes. In the Gonzalez case from Los Angeles, jurors divided fault among several companies, assigning 15% of fault to Caesarstone and 2.5% of fault to Color Marble, with Cambria holding 10%.
How widespread is silicosis overall?
One medical study put the number of U.S. stone fabrication workers at risk at around 100,000. Australia was the first nation to outlaw engineered stone, starting July 1, 2024, and U.S. federal and state officials are now weighing restrictions of their own.
